


Circumstances

by Impaladin67



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Bank Robbery, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 16:51:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6478186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impaladin67/pseuds/Impaladin67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was exactly the type of man Lucy had been looking for. It was a shame they hadn't met under better circumstances; a gun to your head really kills the romantic mood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circumstances

Lucy glanced down at her phone and sighed; she’d been standing in the queue inside the bank for 15 minutes now. She huffed, all she’d wanted to do was get out some money for a shopping trip with Levy. The line next to her seemed to be in the same situation as hers, everyone looked bored and fed up. 

A flash of movement drew her eyes to a boy pushing his fingers through his hair, which was one of the strangest colours she had ever seen - it was almost a salmon like pink. Lucy was so focused on the boy’s strange hair colour she didn’t notice that the boy was staring at her as well. She blushed and looked away. 

Then without warning someone bumped into Lucy. She turned around, ready to yell at some poor stranger who had unfortunately managed to get on her bad side when she was already having such a terrible day but instead stopped and stared. The man in the hoodie who had walked into her brought a gun out from his jacket and pulled down his hood to reveal a balaclava. 

“Everybody get down on the floor and put your hands up!” the masked man held his gun up in the air and fired a warning shot, triggering screams from the other people in the bank. About 7 other people also pulled their hoods down to reveal masks and brought out an array of weapons. Lucy stared around the bank in shock, not believing what was happening to her. As her breath started coming out in short gasps, she was unaware of the people around her kneeling on floor.

The man swung his gun towards her, “I said get down on the floor!” Lucy stared at him, her eyes wide, unable to think clearly. She felt a small tug on her top and looked down to see the pink-haired boy staring up at her with steady, brown eyes. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay, alright?” he reassured her as he gently helped her down onto the floor next to him.  
She nodded, not trusting her voice not to betray her if she spoke. She opened her mouth to speak, but the boy made a shushing gesture and pointed to bank robber who was staring at them with a crazed glint in his eye. He looked as if he was about to move towards them, but then turned and walked towards another man in a mask. 

The boy looked back at her and somehow managed to grin despite their situation. “I’m Natsu Dragneel”, Lucy almost let out a giggle at the sheer ridiculousness of the everyday words in such a terrifying situation, but managed to hold in the hysteria bubbling inside of her. “…Lucy Heartfilia…” she forced the words past the lump of terror in her throat. “Nice to meet you!” Natsu grinned at her again, causing a small smile to flit across her face. “Yeah… Although I wish it had been under better circumstances. ” 

That caused Natsu to let out an almost bittersweet smile which suddenly turned to a grimace as he looked over Lucy’s shoulder. She turned to look and saw one of the people who had been behind her in the line making a break for it towards the bank doors where Lucy could see flashing police cars on the street outside. The man’s fingers had brushed against the door, when he was brutally shot down by the robbers. He collapsed against the doors and slid down, leaving a line of blood.

Lucy gasped in horror, not able to tear her eyes away from the awful sight. Almost instantly Natsu’s arms came around her and pulled her into his chest, shielding her from the sight of the dying man. “Let that be a lesson to all of you; if you try to escape, you’re dead. If you try and call someone, you’re dead. If you even look at me the wrong way, you’re dead”.

Lucy heard the now killer’s threats even though they were muffled through Natsu’s arms. She looked up at Natsu’s face and was only a tiny bit surprised, to see a barely controlled rage on his face and eyes as hard as steel. She looked back over to the killer and felt a chill run down her spine when she saw he was looking straight at her too.

She squeezed his hand comfortingly. He looked down at her in surprise and Lucy realised that he was only a little bit taller than her. “It’s gonna be okay”, she repeated his own words back to him. He gave her another smile, but this one felt more haunted than the last one. “Yeah”, he nodded and gripped her hand.

Lucy decided to find a way to pass the time as it seemed like they weren’t going anywhere soon. “…Soooo, what do you do for a living?” Natsu snorted as he looked at her, then shook his head grinning. “I’m a firefighter, you?” Lucy smiled at that; she could imagine Natsu running into burning buildings and saving people, with no regard for his own safety.  
“I’m a nurse at the local hospital; it’s tiring work, but it’s all worth it when you see the patient’s faces when they’re discharged”, Lucy smiled warmly, recalling good memories of her work. When she looked up, Natsu was looking at her with a fond smile on his face. They just looked at each other for a few moments, getting lost in each other’s eyes, until the spell was broken by one of the men yelling at the other.

“The cops are refusing to let us leave even if we let the hostages go. What the hell are we supposed to do now?” The man looked anxious and he was pacing around the room, Lucy was sure if he didn’t have a balaclava on, he would be running his fingers through his hair. “Just calm down”, his companion snapped, “We just need to find a way to show them we mean business”. The nervous man snorted, “You already shot a guy, what more can we do Erigor?” 

The man – Erigor – snarled at his companion, his eyes mad with fury. “Don’t say my name you useless idiot, unless you want to end up like him over there”, he gestured to the man he had shot and Lucy had no doubt that he was deadly serious. She was beginning to suspect the man was insane, and an unstable person with a gun is a dangerous combination.  
His cruel gaze ran across the room, inspiring fear from all those he looked at, and finally settled on Lucy. She felt her blood run cold and Natsu tightened his grip on her hand. She saw his other hand come to rest on his bag next to him. He shifted it a bit and Lucy saw a glint of cold, hard metal. She stifled a gasp.

Erigor strode over to them and grinned a nasty smile, “Now I’m just gonna have to borrow this little lady here, and you’re just gonna sit tight, okay?” Natsu didn’t even look at him, much less grace him with a reply. Erigor struck out and kicked Natsu in the ribs. Lucy heard a crack and she gasped. “Okay?” he grabbed Natsu’s jaw and made him look at him. Natsu gritted his teeth and gave a short nod. 

Erigor broke out in a joyless grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, “That’s what I thought”. He yanked Lucy up by the arm and started leading her towards the doors. They had barely made it halfway when Natsu gave a cry and dove for his gun, aiming at the man holding Lucy. 

He opened his mouth to speak when his shoulder jerked back, he cried out in pain and dropped the gun on the floor, the clattering noise breaking through the silence that had fallen. He dropped to his knees, hunched over and clutching his furiously bleeding shoulder. His head was bowed, eyes in shadows.

Lucy slapped her hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp as she looked over at one of Erigor’s men, who was lowering the gun he had just shot Natsu with. “You okay boss?” the man asked and Lucy felt small tears begin to leak out of her eyes. No, she thought as she wiped them away with the back of her hand; she wouldn’t give this sick man the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Erigor’s face twisted into the mad, ugly grin once again. “Did you just try to shoot me boy?” When Natsu didn’t respond, he pushed Lucy away and stormed over to the pink-haired boy who was clutching his shoulder and grimacing in pain.

“Well, you gonna try that shit again?” Natsu just stared straight ahead, unblinking, refusing to look at him. Erigor snarled and slapped him across the face, sending him flying to the ground. The harsh sound echoed through the silent building, any small murmurs the other hostages had been making silenced by the scene unfolding in front of them. Lucy gasped in horror and Natsu turned to look at her for a split second. He grinned, a bright smile that made Lucy feel warm and safe, even in the situation they were in. 

His grin disappeared when Erigor kicked him in the ribs again, he didn’t cry out but Lucy saw his jaw tighten and his hands ball into fists. She prayed that Natsu wouldn’t strike out at the man and provoke him further. Erigor kept on kicking Natsu even though he was completely defenceless and lying on the ground. That was when Lucy could say, without a doubt in her mind, that Erigor was completely insane. She honestly didn’t know whether she and Natsu were going to make it out of this alive. 

Finally, Erigor stopped beating Natsu and turned towards the rest of his hostages, leaving Natsu lying on the floor as he wiped the blood off his hands. Lucy felt sick just watching. “Now does anyone else want to try something stupid?” he looked around at his captives kneeling on the floor, as if challenging anyone to speak up. He was met with silence and looked almost pleased with this result. He turned away from Natsu and walked towards one of his accomplices.

Lucy waited a moment to make sure he was gone then slowly crawled towards Natsu. He was trying to lift himself up from the floor, but failing every time and falling back with a painful sounding thud. “Oh my god, are you okay?” Lucy felt stupid as soon as she asked the question, of course he wasn’t okay, he just got beaten up by a psychotic lunatic.  
Natsu’s head shot up in surprise at her voice, “Luce are you okay?” Lucy felt her eyebrows raise, and she would’ve laughed if it wasn’t completely inappropriate for the situation. How on earth could he be worrying about her, when he was the one lying injured on the floor of a bank under the control of a madman? And Luce? Really?

“Of course I’m okay, well as much as can be expected whilst being held hostage”, she let out a short, humourless laugh which cut off as she saw his shoulder. “Shit…” she breathed as she examined it closer, gently pulling his t-shirt out of the way. “Natsu, the bullets still in you!” she blanched, “Just wait right here and don’t move your shoulder!” she commanded.

“Where are you going? Luce!” she ignored his whisper-shouts as she set off crawling silently over to one of the desks. Stealthily, she grabbed a water bottle and box of tissues that had been left unused when Erigor and his men took over the bank. One of the masked men watched her do this, but didn’t seem to think of her as a threat. 

She crawled back over to Natsu and started wetting a bundle of tissues. “I can clean up the rest of your wounds, but I don’t want to risk taking the bullet out without proper medical equipment”. She pushed his brightly coloured hair which had first drew her to look at him, away from his forehead to examine a cut, then started dabbing it with the tissues.  
She decided to try and take Natsu’s mind off the pain in his shoulder by asking him about his life. His eyes lit up as he started talking, “I have a cat called Happy; he’s blue”. Lucy snorted in a very unladylike fashion and wondered what her father would have said if he had been here. Probably something about how a Heartfilia lady should always act with grace or something equally annoying. “Excuse me?” Natsu looked confused at her outburst, “He’s blue and he’s a cat, he’s a blue cat”. Lucy shook her head, giving up. If the pink-haired boy had a blue-haired cat, who was she to argue? 

“When we get out of here you’ll have to meet him, he’s usually in our apartment or in our neighbours place; he really likes the other cat that lives there”, Natsu added casually although it felt anything but casual to Lucy. She’d only met this guy an hour or two ago and he was already inviting her to his apartment? 

She shook her head mentally, she was thinking too hard about it and besides Natsu seemed like one of those people who would just blurt out easily misunderstandable things like that. Lucy had way bigger problems than that to worry about at the moment.

Like how what must have been Natsu’s phone vibrating in his bag and causing Erigor to look over their way suspiciously. Lucy faked a coughing fit to cover up the noise and it seemed to do the trick. “Do you have a cough Luce?” Although he sounded genuinely sincere and concerned, Lucy had no trouble hitting him for his stupidity. 

“No dumbass your phone just went off and I thought that since Erigor already looks like he wants to kill you we shouldn’t give him an actual reason to”, Natsu’s eyes widened in understanding, “Whoa thanks Luce”.

He subtly checked his phone, like a teenager trying to check their phone in school whilst hiding it from a teacher. Apart from in this version their ‘teacher’ was a murderous psychopath and one little text could make them next on his kill list.

Lucy pretended to have a conversation with Natsu, when really she was just trying to keep Erigor’s suspicion away from them. She talked about everything, her job, her friends, even what she ate last night and what she watched on TV. Even whilst reading whatever had been sent to him, Lucy could sense he was listening intently to what she was saying.  
“What was the text about?” Lucy asked, her voice lowered so not to attract attention. Natsu checked the positions of the robbers then whispered back, “My friend’s one of the police guys out there, he said they’re getting ready to storm in so we should be prepared”. 

Lucy nodded then turned to one of the men next to them, “Police about to move in, be prepared, and pass it on”. She felt almost like a child playing Chinese whispers. The man’s eyes widened and he nodded nervously. He passed it on to the next person and then the next, until it had gone round the whole room.

Lucy felt butterflies in her stomach, what if more people got hurt? What if Natsu got hurt? She shook her head quickly, thoughts like that wouldn’t help at all. But still she slid her hand across to Natsu’s and gripped it tight. He clenched her hand tightly, and Lucy could feel he was as anxious as she was.

Lucy couldn’t remember much of what happened next, but suddenly the windows exploded inwards and shards of glass were sent flying everywhere. Natsu mostly shielded her from the flying glass, but she still felt little pieces tear at her cheeks and matt in her hair.

Armed police quickly followed through the now empty windows and started to shoot at the masked men. Lucy felt Natsu push her to the ground as she covered her ears. But still she could hear the terrible crack of guns and dull thuds of bodies hitting the floor.

She felt something warm and solid land next to her and screamed, her voice adding to the already deafening mixture of screams and gunshots echoing around the bank. She opened her eyes very slightly and was horrified to see Erigor’s face inches from her own, blood dripping from the frozen grin on his face and his empty eyes staring straight into hers.

She rolled over and buried herself into Natsu, taking comfort of the warm and very much alive body lying next to her, as opposed to the cold corpse the other side of her. She felt Natsu’s hand come round and gently cradle her head, bringing it towards him so all the sounds of death and chaos were muffled to Lucy’s ears.

After what felt like an age, the sound of gunshots stopped, although plenty of people were still screaming. Lucy lifted her head hesitantly, and was greeted with a sight that would haunt her forever. The bodies of the gunmen were strewn across the floor in puddles of blood, their glazed eyes staring lifelessly at the people they were going to kill. There were several officers nursing wounds but thankfully there were no uniformed bodies on the floor.

She slowly sat up and looked over at Natsu. He looked as sick as Lucy felt, with a grim look in his eyes, which widened as a dark-haired officer jogged over to them. His eyes were a deep blue, which hardened as he took in the bruises and blood on Natsu’s face and became downright terrifying as he saw the bullet wound.

“Can’t keep out of trouble for more than five minutes can you?” The dark-haired boy joked, although he was looking very concerned at the shoulder wound. “Yep, good thing you’re always there to bail me out”, Natsu joked right back at him. The officer relaxed visibly and let out an easy-going grin. “Damn right, if you’re not more careful I’ll tell on you to Erza”, he looked over his shoulder to another police officer, this time female with long scarlet hair.

Natsu’s face paled, “You wouldn’t dare”, the other boy just laughed and offered Natsu a hand up, which he accepted. The other boy pulled Natsu up into a short hug and clasped him close, “Don’t do anything stupid like that again”, he whispered loudly enough for Lucy to hear. 

She was struck by how close the two boys seemed, maybe they were brothers? They didn’t look alike, but they gave off a certain aura that only brothers could have. They may not have been blood brothers, but they certainly had a bond. 

The boy helped Lucy up as well as Natsu said, “Oh yeah this is Lucy, she was also a hostage, but she helped me with the bullet wound. She’s pretty cool. Luce, this is Gray Fullbuster, my police friend who texted me”, Lucy shook Gray’s hand; he seemed like a pretty good guy.

Another person had caught Gray’s eye and he gave Natsu a little push towards the exit to the bank. “You should go get that wound checked out at an ambulance, and Lucy you kinda look like you’re in shock, go warm up”. Lucy hadn’t noticed before as so much had been going on, but she didn’t feel very good and everything seemed like it was happening in slow motion and wasn’t real.

As they started to make their way towards the exit, Lucy heard Gray’s voice again, “Okay Miss Lockser, Juvia? We’re gonna stand up now and go outside okay? Can you do that? ” She looked back to see Gray helping a young woman with strange blue hair to her feet. 

Lucy had to squeeze her eyes shut every time they walked past a body. When she did, Natsu would take her hand and lead her away towards the exits. A blast of fresh air greeted Lucy and Natsu as they stepped out of the door. Lucy breathed it in greedily; it felt amazing after hours of being trapped in the stuffy bank.

Bright flashing eyes assaulted her eyes as they walked towards the ambulances. Lucy was pulled towards one of the ambulances and Natsu a different one for his wounds. She gave him a panicked glance over her shoulder and he gave her a calm and steady gaze back. She felt herself relax, if Natsu was calm then she would be to.

She gave her details to one of the paramedics, who in turn gave her a warm blanket to wrap round her shoulders. She thanked him, then started to wander over to where Natsu was getting his bullet wound looked at.

She sat down next to Natsu, who was sitting at the back of the ambulance, his legs hanging over the side and scuffing the floor as a paramedic cleaned out the wound. The paramedic was chatting lightly to Natsu to distract him from the pain, “You’re very lucky”, she heard her say, “The wounds already been cleaned out and the bleeding staunched. Whoever did it must be very experienced.” Lucy blushed at the praise.

“Hey”, she whispered softly to Natsu, gripping his hand gently. He turned round and smiled at her, “Hey”, he whispered back. “Try not to move too much or it might start bleeding again, apart from that you’re good to go”, the paramedic announced chirpily and moved to find more people to treat, leaving Natsu and Lucy to talk. 

“Wow… That was probably the weirdest day I’ve ever had”, Lucy tried to joke and Natsu smiled softly. He shivered and Lucy looked over at him in concern; he wasn’t dressed very warmly and it had turned cold whilst they were trapped in the bank.

She reached round him and pulled the blanket tight around both of them. She snuggled in close, taking care to avoid Natsu’s wounds. He put his good arm around her, “Yeah, though I’m glad I got to meet you”. Lucy glanced up at him warmly, “Yeah me too, though I wish the circumstances had been better”, and they shared more soft laughter at that.  
“Maybe we should start over, at a café or somewhere”, Lucy started at the cautious, but hopeful tone in his voice, was he asking her on a date? She smiled tenderly and leaned in closer, “Yeah, I’d like that, I’d like that a lot”.

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably just a oneshot, but a second chapter could be in the future, if there's enough interest. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. All comments, kudos and critiques are much appreciated.


End file.
